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“The best job in the world” is the way many Rangers in the Peak District National Park would describe their work. It is certainly a varied job. A Ranger can never be certain what the next day will bring, from a meeting with the local WATCH group to tackling a summer moorland fire.
THE NATIONAL PARK .....
Centuries of human history have moulded a remarkable mosaic of heather moors, limestone pastures and weather-beaten villages out of the craggy landscape of the Peak District. Much of the land in the plateaux and dales of the White Peak is farmed, mainly for sheep and cattle. The gritstone uplands forming the Dark Peak provide grazing for sheep, with the heather moors also managed for grouse shooting. Reservoirs in the deep gritstone valleys supply water to neighbouring towns and cities and the slopes around these valleys provide a supply of timber.
In 1951 the Peak District became Britain’s first National Park but this does not mean that it is owned by the nation. The majority of the land is still privately owned - much of it by farmers - but the National Trust and the water companies also own large areas of the Park.
Access agreements were made with the landowners to allow the public the right to pursue quiet activities such as walking and climbing without having to keep to public rights of way. As most of the access land was managed for grouse shooting, the agreements allowed for the moors to be closed for a few days each year during the grouse shooting season (12 August to 10 December). There are now 152 square kilometres of access land. More footpaths and public rights of way were also established, to create the current 6,400 kilometres of footpaths.
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The Warden Service
In 1954 the Peak National Park scored another first with the establishment of the National Park Warden Service formed to deal with issues arising from public use. At that time only the access land was covered by the service, and the service itself consisted of only one full-time warden assisted by a few enthusiastic volunteers.
| Ranger Service Established The Warden Service gradually expanded and began to look after land purchased by the Park, especially in the limestone region where trails had been made on redundant railway tracks. In 1974 the Warden Service was reorganised, became the Ranger Service and was expanded to cover the whole of the National Park. Today the Ranger Service is divided into thirteen areas, each managed by an Area Ranger. There are a further six full-time Rangers, with another 200 part-time and volunteer staff providing back-up. Every weekend around a hundred volunteer and part-time patrol Rangers will be helping the full-time staff in advising and assisting visitors, especially on the access moors and honeypot sites in the Park. A large group of conservation volunteers, an environmental awareness team, two countryside maintenance teams and a Pennine Way footpath team, work alongside the Rangers. The whole Service is managed by a Chief Ranger with the support of three senior Rangers, a Rights of Way Officer, Conservation Volunteers Organiser, Pennine Way Manager, Education and Awareness Ranger and other staff based at the National Park Offices in Bakewell. Although the scope of the job has expanded since the early days, the essence of the work remains the same: to provide a key point of contact between the National Park Authority, the residents and the visitors. |
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